


I wish I could tell you I love you

by cheshirejin



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-21
Updated: 2012-04-21
Packaged: 2017-11-06 07:59:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/416565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheshirejin/pseuds/cheshirejin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Title: I wish I could tell you I love you<br/>
Author: cheshirejin<br/>
Fandom: Avatar<br/>
Chars/pairing: Zuko centric<br/>
Rateing:  T</p><br/><p>Zuko has a lot of mixed feelings involving his family and friends. Post series short story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I wish I could tell you I love you

  


The cold dampness made his skin goose pimple as he descended the stairway into maze- like warren leading to the lowest part of the prison. It was visiting day once again. Finally he arrived in the tunnels where special glowing fungus gave the only light, as torches and lanterns were too dangerous in the presence of the captive. Firelord Zuko took a deep steadying breath before approaching the cell that held his younger sister.

“So the great firelord has decided to visit again?” She spat at him.

“Yes Azula, like it or not we are family. I have made it my duty to check and make sure you and father are not being treated harshly.”

“Family, feh! Father wanted you dead, I would have killed you; still will if I get the chance. Why would you care about what happens to me?” she snarled caustically.

‘Why?’ he asked himself, thinking over the time he had spent with Aang and his friends. The way Sokka and Katara had worked by each other’s side through everything they had faced so far. They had shown him what a family should be like. The feeling of warmth and belonging rather than the dark self loathing and sibling rivalry that had been fostered in him; the brutality and calculated power grabbing his father had set as an example.

Once again, as on countless occasions before, his thoughts turned to the scar on his face, its raised discoloration had been a mark of shame for him to bear as long as the man who gave it to him ruled his people.

As long as his father saw more promise in his younger child, Azula, the firebending prodigy who was as cruel and clever as they come, he hadn’t stood a chance of being accepted by that man.

It had taken him almost too long to realize that his honor had never been gone. It was just waiting for him on a different path than the one his father walked. That his father’s ways were not his own and he would have gone insane trying to emulate his father’s ways against his own nature.

“I don’t care,” he answered truthfully looking at her chained form thoughtfully.  “Maybe if we had been raised differently; if we had some history or bond that would tug at my heart when I see you here like this it would be different.”

In his mind he saw the GAang again, being around them had been like stepping out into a sunlit crisp clear day where everything was fresh and new. He was grateful to the good spirits that his uncle had seen something worth nurturing in him. Without Iroh he would have probably been just as lost as the cursing, drooling, shackled, insane woman before him was.

“ I wish I could tell you I love you, sis… but I don’t.”  Zuko shrugged and turned to leave with a sad sigh as his sister screamed curses and threats at his back.

  


  



End file.
